Google Friend Connect, now more personalized — (Cross-posted with the Social Web Blog) — On the subway, I bump elbows with a guy for 20 city blocks without exchanging a single word. Forty-five minutes later, I find the same guy at the local guitar shop, and we start to talk — turns out he plays a Gibson Les Paul just like I do.

Exclusive: More Microsoft layoffs — We're hearing from unofficial but reliable sources tonight that Microsoft is poised to make additional job cuts this week, with the affected employees expected to be notified as early as Wednesday morning. — This latest round of layoffs is expected …

Microsoft Cuts 800 More Positions — In its third round of layoffs this year, Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) says it is cutting 800 jobs across the company today. The software giant said in January that it would eliminate up to 5,000 jobs, in response to falling sales and profits.

EMI Sues BlueBeat for Selling Beatles Tunes Online — The record label EMI has sued a little known online music site called BlueBeat.com for selling Beatles songs without permission. — The Beatles catalog, including dozens of the top pop songs ever recorded, has famously never been licensed for sale as digital downloads.

Amazon Turns On The Twitter Pump To Fuel Referral Fees — Tonight, Amazon sent an email to members of Amazon Associates letting them know about a new feature: Twitter integration. Basically, when you're logged into your Associate account, you'll see a new “Share on Twitter” …

Verizon Wireless: Tethering Coming for Droid — Think the Motorola Droid is almost perfect, but it just needs to be a modem for your laptop? Verizon can help with that, next year. Verizon Wireless told us that their “Broadband Access Connect” plan, which allows you to tether your phone as a modem …

Clutter-Free, Twittified, Binged (and Also Apple-icious): The New MSN Homepage Debuts (Plus Screenshots and the Press Release) — The new MSN homepage debuts tonight and you would be completely correct in thinking the recipe Microsoft (MSFT) has cooked up to inform its design ethos-white …

Apple Unveils Music-Themed Movie Push — Apple today will launch a new marketing and promotional effort designed to drive music buyers to music-themed movies in its video store. — The most visible change to the iTunes service will be a Music Movies landing page dedicated to music films …

Blacksn0w unlock available now for iPhone 3G and 3GS — There's no stopping the eternal tug-of-war between the powers that be and the hackers that will, and for the time being it looks like things are back in the hands of the hackers. As of noon today giddy jailbreakers can take the next step …

Oracle braced for EU objection on Sun deal — By Richard Waters in San Francisco and Nikki Tait in Brussels — Oracle is braced for a formal objection from Brussels to its planned $7.4bn acquisition of fellow US technology company Sun Microsystems, escalating the company's high-stakes legal wrangle …

Global Telcos Agree on LTE Voice and SMS Standards — This one is big: numerous big telecoms around the world have finally agreed on a standard for voice and SMS communication over upcoming LTE 4G networks. — Dubbed One Voice, the new initiative defines an optimal set …

USB 3.0 thumb drive pops up — Super Talent goes SuperSpeed — Flash vendor Super Talent is leading the pack again and has come up with a USB 3.0 thumb drive. — Its SuperSpeed USB 3.0 RAIDDRive comes in 32GB, 64GB and 128GB capacities and works with current USB 2.0 ports, but obviously at USB 2.0 speed.